My first lesson came when our first daughter was born in Shawbury, England. We had a small company semi-detached house with two bedrooms and a small study upstsirs with the living room, kitchen and dining room on the ground floor.
There was no central heating but we had a coal fireplace in the living room. We had a paraffin heater in the entrance hall and an electric bar heater in the dining toom. The upstairs was quite cold as the only the heat that permeated upstairs was available for us..
When Annikki was admitted to hospital for the birth of our first daughter, Susanna, I discussed with a couple of my colleagues and we all thought Annikki would be more comfortable if we moved the bedroom downstairs as the living room was always warm with a raging coal fire..
So three of us moved all the bedroom furniture of bed and cupboards down the narrow winding staircase down the living room and took all the living room furniture upstairs including the large television. A job well done by three people!
After 7 days I brought Annikki home from hospital. I showed her our handiwork but she said absolutely nothing.
The next day I returned in the mornimg to my work and came home at 5 in the evening.
I got a shock of my life as this little lady had, by herself, reversed all the work we has done!
I did not question her as this was her home, but it was my first experience of Finnish “sisu”.
I never again interfered in “her home” as the lesson was quite evident,
We moved to India in 1969 and we lived in a small flat in the city centre. Annikki was not happy.
I found a small independent house with a garden in the suburb of Madras. It was in the Defence Officer’s Colony at St. Thomas Mount. This house appeared on the market for rent.
Annikki liked it and we took it on rent. It had just been constructed and the house had two bedrooms, a large study and a large living cum dining room room. Just ideal for the two of us and our two small children with a third one on the way. Annikki furnished it minimally and we lived there for a couple of years,
Then a good family friend told me that he had a property of about half and acre with a large two storey villa type house with three bedrooms, a large living room, a large dining room, an entrance toom, a pantry and an enormous kitchen, with a verandah upstairs, a large. study room for the children, and a verandah at the entrance of the house. It also had a small covered car shed. The house also had a small outhouse for any live in home help.
Standing in the garden of our Velacheri villa in Madras.
I took it immediately and Annikki got to work to furnish it.
She wanted a good living room set. Those on the market did not appeal to her. She designed her own to have it made. Rosewood and teak wood were expensive,
I took her to a wood depot and she knew exactly what she wanted.
White ceddar logs were lying there were really cheap as nobody could find use for it. Annikki got the logs sawn to exactly the sizes she wanted. Annikki then called a local carpenter and told him how she wanted the furniture to be made. No nails were used but using the wedge shaped locking design she designed all her furniture.
The carpenter, an old man, was extremely good and made the three seater and a single seater sofa set.
As MM Rubber was part of our family group, she got the foam cushions made to suit the correct size. They were just superb and became a talking point among our friends.
All the other furniture was also designed by Annikki and they suited our needs.
They lasted the next 10 years we lived in India. When we left India we got the price almost three times it had cost us to make them.
Her choice of cushion covers, curtains and other furnishings made use of the wonderful Indian textiles and the enormous range of colours and designs that were available.
The houses we occupied alway had her paintings to make them unique. Her creations as this one of handed painted fused light bulbs and aluminium foil was before the concept of recycling had even been thought of as an important international necessity!
She even recycled detergent boxes making them into file holders.
We also had a large collection of Indian antiques, but that is another storey which we will blog about later.
When we moved to Finland we had to leave most of the stuff behind but she brought whatever she thought were important for our new life in Finlsnd.
Our first home Finland was a small living cum dining room, an attic room and another even smaller attic room with a tiny kitchen. We were six, two adults and four children of ages 17, 26, 13 and 11.
Two children left for England within a year and the four of us were very comfortable for the next 9 years when our third daughter moved out.
Then our son went to boarding school in Turku and we were just two and it was luxury.
When Annikki’s younger brother moved in, I decided we would move out. We found a lovely penthouse on Torikatu. Annikki did a masterful job setting up that home.
However, her father passed away and we had to move back to Annikki’s mother's home to look after her mother who had developed dementia. The house was remodelled by Annikki to suit the situation.
Annikki implemented many aspects making it suitable and an outstanding house to live in and look after her disabled mother.
At the same time she did the house interior so beautifully that living there was like being in heaven. And I never saw her work as she was always doing something and I only saw it when she completed each task.
Her designs are worth talking anout.
She took an ordinary fish tank and it became a piece of art.
The colours were self generated by sunlight coming through tghe window.
Her table top aquarium was a masterpiece as it became our cat’s tv. She would sit on it or lie on it to see the tasty gold fish swimming under the plastic cover.
When her mother passed away in 2008, our daughter, Joanna, had moved to England to study medicine. We moved into her house. Annikki worked wonders in that house but she was not happy in this borrowed home.
By good fortune we found a house on Sarkkatie. It was just right for her.
The photos above show a small portion of her creativity. For instance, the antlers are not antlers but a branch from a tree fashioned as antlers!
We lived there for 10 years and it became the personal museum of Annikki. It showcased her interior design competence. Everything she did was artistic!
Unfortunately, my heart failure and amputation of my foot meant we had to move to an apartment as neither of us were able to maintain a large house and garden.
I am no interior designer and just tried to make everything practical for me as an invalid in a wheelchair to manage a apartment also and Annikki who had developed dementia.
I sadly miss Annikki’s special skills as an interior designer which I had thoroughly enjoyed throughout our married life!
It is only now I discovered the enormous talent Annikki possessed as everything in our homes was always just perfect.
She was prepared for every eventuality that everything was taken by me as granted. She was never stressed.
Only now I realise how much she had worked to get the homes right for all of us.
I am not even close to being an interior design.
What I have shown you here just a few examples of Annikki's capabilities.
In my next blog of this series I will show you that beside interior design she was so competent as a garden designer. She created four of our gardens so beautifully that every single day I miss that skill of Annikki.
